Author: Stacey at myjigsawjournal

Animal Tales In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

Animal Tales – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

Once I finally got myself going on this one, it seems to be coming together quickly. The bright colors and interesting images on each of the covers makes it relatively easy and very entertaining to assemble.

I’ve been in a mood the past few days and haven’t done as much puzzling as I normally would, but I’m trying to get myself out of that head space. Hopefully it won’t take too long and I’ll be back to my normal self soon.

If today goes as well as yesterday this puzzle should be finished before I go to bed tonight; if not, it will definitely be done by tomorrow.

Phenomenal Women

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments

Phenomenal Women – African American Expressions – 500 pieces

This was an entertaining, good quality puzzle that was a little more challenging can I gave it credit for, but enjoyable all the same. African American Expressions is a company whose puzzles I haven’t seen before, but it was well-made and a great image to put together.

All around I would give this puzzle a “very good” in the quality department; the chipboard is thinner than that of a premium puzzle but very sturdy, the fit is very good, there are a very good variety of piece shapes, and the image reproduction is good. I was pleasantly surprised, usually a company that makes things other than puzzles doesn’t do so well in the jigsaw puzzle department, but this seems to be an exception.

It looks as though they only make 500 piece puzzles, and obviously they feature only African American artwork – they’ve got quite a few beautiful images that I would love to assemble.

Now I know that if I run across one of their puzzles that they have good quality and I won’t hesitate to buy them again.

Literary Dogs

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles10 Comments

Literary Dogs by Kathryn Freeman – Artifact – 302 pieces

This very long puzzle was so entertaining to assemble that I kept forgetting to do other things; things like taking a drink, getting up and moving around, talking to my family, etc. With such an interesting border and so many adorable dogs I just kept getting sucked into the assembly – don’t you love it when that happens? I do!

Such a wonderful quality puzzle from Artifact, it was a joy to put together. Lately I’ve been putting together more puzzles with unique borders, and I have to tell you that they are so much fun. 😍 It’s hard to see when you take a picture of the entire puzzle, so I’ve taken some closeup shots for you.

Not only are there whimsies in the body of the puzzle itself, but there are animals frolicking all across the top as well. I love that you can tell the breed of several of the dogs just by their shapes.

The books include quite a few animal-related stories: Lassie, Old Yeller, Moby Dick, White Fang, etc. There are the classics as well; The Hobbit, Of Mice and Men, Anna Karenina and more. Books and dogs – this puzzle was right up my alley!

Love the heart on the side of the big black and white dog (I’m unsure of the breed), and the tableau of animals romping along the top of the puzzle are so cute!

You can see that many of the whimsy pieces were attached to the top border, and some were by themselves. I can’t overstate how much I enjoyed this – it made for a wonderfully absorbing and entertaining afternoon of meditative puzzling.

Nothing’s In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous4 Comments

I finished the 300 piece puzzle on my board yesterday, and also finished up the puzzle in the bathroom – so unfortunately I’ve got no puzzles going at the moment to tell you about. Normally I would have made sure to at the very least start sorting another puzzle to post about (every third day is an “in progress” post), but it’s been a rough week and I just didn’t get around to it.

We got home from our trip on Sunday evening, and I immediately had to go to the doctor. Because of a problem with my good leg I’ve been put on bedrest for the next week and am temporarily taking a medication that makes me extremely dizzy and lightheaded (and I still have to take my pain meds with it). So even if I wasn’t ordered to stay off my feet, I would absolutely need to – because me walking around feeling dizzy is a recipe for disaster. I’m a klutz. A big one.

Anyway, yesterday was spent in bed almost all day long and I never got around to starting a new puzzle. I’ve chosen what’ll be next both on my puzzle board and in the bathroom, they just haven’t even been taken out of their packages yet. And there are still eight puzzles to write posts for that were assembled on our trip or since we’ve been home; there’s plenty of puzzle stuff to keep me busy, that’s for sure.

Regardless, I will definitely get a puzzle going today. Hubby has to be away during the day this weekend, and I’ll be able to sneak off to the puzzle room if I’m feeling well enough. And if I’m not – there are plenty of trays here and if need be I can start sorting and/or working on the next puzzle in bed! 🧩🛌

Bake Someone Happy

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles9 Comments

Bake Someone Happy – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

This was much more difficult than I thought it would be, and I didn’t even attempt to put the edges together at the beginning – this one was worked from the inside out. You go where the puzzle leads sometimes and that where I was being lead.

This is the companion puzzle to Secret Ingredient: Love and the subscription box came with a set of four jigsaw puzzle piece shaped cookie cutters. Both puzzles were baking themed and each had a recipe on the back…

Both recipes call for using your cookie cutters – and I can’t wait to use them. (I pretty much love everything with puzzle shapes.) And if that apron were available with all those puzzle pieces on it, I’d definitely get one of those too.

My recipe for sugar cookies is a bit different and hubby loves it so I’ll probably use that recipe, but I’ll definitely be trying out the new cookie cutters with it. All we have to do now is wait for a day when I’m feeling good enough to bake – here’s hoping! 🍪